I nodded again. "He felt like he had to. Whether it was fines or repairs, there's no way he could've paid all of them." I paused. "Or should I say there's no way I could've paid all of them."
And yet, it would've been nice to have the chance to try.
I was still miffed at Jason for not telling me what had been going on. He'd claimed that he hadn't wanted to worry me during my final semester of college. But even now, I was finding this hard to believe.
Probably, Jason had been too afraid to admit that he'd let the place fall to pieces around him. And then, he'd been afraid of Brody.
That was a story in and of itself.
Cami's eyebrows furrowed. "So basically, your cousin was forced to sell?"
"Right." I'd explained all of this to Cami already in painful detail. But from the look on her face, it had taken the paperwork to truly drive the point home.
It had been the same way with me.
But there was one particular document that really broke my heart. I stood from the chair and reached toward the pile of papers. I began rummaging through it until I found the thing I was looking for.
It didn't take long for me to locate it, probably because in a fit of anger last night, I'd actually wadded it up and hurled it against the wall.
Oh sure, I'd tried to straighten it out afterward, because the document wasn't officially mine. But I'd done a sorry job of it, which meant that it stuck out like a sore thumb.
I handed it to Cami and waited in silence for her to read it.
The document was a personal letter from Jason to Brody, where Jason had practically begged Brody to buy only half of the house, meaning Jason's half, which would've left my half intact.
In the letter, Jason had confessed that his younger cousin – meaning me, of course – secretly owned half of the property and was, in Jason's owns words, "emotionally attached to the place."
In that same letter, Jason had gone into an awkward amount of detail on how I'd been working two jobs to keep up with the payments and how I'd lived there with my grandparents back in high school.
And on and on.
The letter was five pages long and pretty darn embarrassing, even if it was all true.
Embarrassing or not, I had to give Jason at least some credit for trying. Of course, his idea was totally impractical. I mean, why would Brody – or any other investor – be willing to buy only half of a house?
It didn't help that the secret owner – again, meaning me – appeared nowhere on the deed or in any other legal document related to the property.
And it especially didn't help that buyer – meaning Brody – totally hated me at the time of the transaction.
This was beyond obvious by the way Brody had responded to Jason's letter. He'd returned it with only a handwritten note, scrawled across the bottom of the letter's first page.
The note said, and I quote, "Not my problem."
When Cami finished reading the letter, she flipped back to the beginning and gave it a long, perplexed look. Finally, she looked up. "Not my problem? What does that mean?"
"It means he's a jerk, that's what."
"Yeah, but that was months ago, before you two were together." With a hopeful smile, she added, "I'm sure he would've responded differently now."
It was such a nice thought. But I couldn't quite agree. And that wasn't even the point. I told Cami, "This isn't about the house."
She gave me a dubious look. "Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure," I said. "Look, yes, I would still love to buy it. In fact, I told Brody so on the phone." Under my breath, I added, "Except I wasn't so nice about it, I guess."
Cami asked, "So what is it about?"
"It's about him lying to me." I blinked away sudden tears. "Look, I get that he didn't want to share ownership, especially when I had nothing to offer. But what I don't get is why he never told me the truth, not even after we got so close."
Cami paused as if thinking. "Well…Maybe he was embarrassed." She gave the letter another quick glance. "I mean, he does come across as a cold S.O.B."
"Yeah, but he still could've told me. Given our history, I would've understood."
"But maybe he didn't know that."
"Well, he should've," I said. "And even if he didn't, why make a point to keep lying to me?"
"Well…" Cami bit her lip. "Maybe he didn't want to lose you."
I made a sound of frustration. "Why are you sticking up for him?"
"I don’t mean to," she said. "I'm just saying, maybe he never got up the nerve to tell you the truth."
At this, I had to laugh. It wasn't a happy sound. "Trust me," I said. "If there's one thing Brody has it's nerve. And plenty of it."
"Yeah, but he's also crazy about you."
"Oh, please," I said. "He can't be."
"Sure he can." Her tone grew wistful. "And love makes you do funny things."
"Love?" With a choked sob, I said, "He doesn't love me. Cripes, he probably doesn't even like me."
"Oh come on," she said. "That's not true. If it were, I wouldn't be sitting here right now."
I saw what she meant. And if things were just a little bit different, I might've seen it that way, too. But obviously, Cami still wasn't getting it.
Desperately, I tried to explain. "Do you have any idea how many times he lied to me? And that's not all either."
She gave me a wary look. "There's more?"
"Oh yeah," I said. "Get this. Jason is banned from the house."
Cami shook her head. "Banned? What do you mean?"
"I mean," I said, "if he comes anywhere near it, or even talks about it, it'll cost him, bigtime." I pointed to the scattered paperwork. "Do you know, he took a huge risk in showing me those?"
Cami glanced down
